Malaysia’s renewable energy policies and programs with green aspects Saad Mekhilef a,n , Meghdad Barimani a , Azadeh Safari b , Zainal Salam c a Power Electronics and Renewable Energy Research Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia b Department of Electronic Engineering, Macquarie University, 2109 Sydney, NSW, Australia c Center of Electrical Energy Systems, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 8130 Johor Bahru, Malaysia article info Article history: Received 2 December 2011 Received in revised form 11 June 2014 Accepted 9 July 2014 Keywords: Renewable energy Energy policy Malaysia Green prospect abstract Malaysia, as a developing country and a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is looking into inexhaustible and repeatable alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, mini-hydro and biomass. The estimated GDP at 2010 is $15,385 per capita and the economic and industrial growth of the country implies that energy demand is growing very fast. In addition, the growing prices of fossil fuels, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, make inevitable renewable energy solutions for the country. Geographically, Malaysia is located in a region of tropical and humid climate which provides easy access to a variety of renewable energy sources. The government of Malaysia has initiated renewable energy policies to encourage industries and individuals to employ renewable-energy-powered systems in power applications. This paper first gives a brief overview of the current status of renewable energy in Malaysia. Then it provides the energy policies, specifically the renewable energy policies in Malaysia, in Section 2. The renewable energy programs are reviewed in Section 3. The building energy efficiency program with green aspect is provided in Section 4. Lastly, the conclusion and forecasts of this paper are given in Section 5. & 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 498 2. Energy policies in Malaysia ............................................................................................ 498 2.1. Renewable energy policy........................................................................................ 498 2.1.1. Five-Fuel Diversification Policy under the 8th and 9th Malaysia Plans ............................................. 498 2.1.2. The National Biofuel Policy ............................................................................... 498 2.1.3. The National Renewable Energy Policy and Action Plan ........................................................ 499 3. Renewable energy programs ........................................................................................... 500 3.1. The Small Renewable Energy Power (SREP) Program ................................................................. 500 3.2. The UNDP-GEF Biomass Power Generation and Demonstration (BioGen) project ........................................... 500 3.2.1. FELDA Besout POME Biogas Project ........................................................................ 500 3.2.2. Bandar Baru Serting Biomass Project ....................................................................... 501 3.3. The Malaysian Building Integrated Photovoltaic (MBIPV) Project ........................................................ 501 3.4. The Economic Transformation Program (ETP) ....................................................................... 501 3.5. The Feed-in Tariff (FiT) ......................................................................................... 501 4. Building an energy efficiency program with green prospects ................................................................. 501 4.1. The Malaysian Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement Project (MIEEIP) ................................................ 502 4.1.1. Low-Energy Office (LEO) building .......................................................................... 502 4.1.2. Zero-Energy Office (ZEO) building ......................................................................... 502 4.2. The green building index (GBI) ................................................................................... 502 5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 503 Acknowledgement....................................................................................................... 503 References ............................................................................................................. 503 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.095 1364-0321/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 40 (2014) 497–504